Christmas Day

I grew up with the tradition of reading the Christmas story from Luke 2, then a feeding frenzy of opening presents.  Greg and I kept the story tradition but decided to pass on the frenzy part.  It is hard when you're getting all this stuff to keep remembering what is being celebrated.

When the kids were little we decided to limit the Christmas presents to three...  because 'Jesus got three presents'.  For several years we kept the presents specific, one toy, one artistic/musical and one educational.  That has somewhat slipped away as they've gotten older, but we still try to stick with just three gifts.  And there is no frenzy!  One gift at a time and watching each other unwrap.

I do miss the joy of having children open presents.  Truth is, now we have so much, nothing is really a surprise anymore.  Not that I'm not grateful and very happy with the paraffin wax bath my family gave me...  VERY thrilled.  But there is a special joy of sharing that time with a child.  It almost works with golden retrievers.  They are thrilled to be allowed to rip up wrapping paper and find a new toy inside.  And the toy lasts just about as long as a toy given to a small child.  =0)  Christmas with grown children is a new and different season of life.

We also don't do the big Christmas dinner thing.  I feel like I've been eating since Thanksgiving!  Instead I make a good breakfast after gifts are exchanged and we spend the day chilling out playing with our new toys and making phone calls to grandparents.  Then for dinner a simple pasta meal.  A quiet, peaceful day.  Not every year works out this way, but this one was nice.

We do have another tradition for the holiday season.  A few years ago the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies began coming out in theaters during Christmas and we were always the first in line.  After the third one finished we felt lost... what do we do now?  We began watching the DVDs a little at a time during the week between Christmas and New Years.  One disc at a time... the Director's Cut.  Takes about the whole week to fit it all in.  This evening we started with the first disc.  Great movie, great story, great cast... though my favorite is still Legolas. 

Now Christmas has come and gone, but the celebrating continues for another week.  Greg will only work for a couple days this week because of New Years.  I'm going to continue posting daily until New Years day.  Might as well, I'm on a roll!